Deep-Learning for Classification of Colorectal Polyps on Whole-Slide Images

Histopathological characterization of colorectal polyps is an important principle for determining the risk of colorectal cancer and future rates of surveillance for patients. This characterization is time-intensive, requires years of specialized training, and suffers from significant inter-observer and intra-observer variability. In this work, we built an automatic image-understanding method that can accurately classify different types of colorectal polyps in whole-slide histology images to help pathologists with histopathological characterization and diagnosis of colorectal polyps. The proposed image-understanding method is based on deep-learning techniques, which rely on numerous levels of abstraction for data representation and have shown state-of-the-art results for various image analysis tasks. Our image-understanding method covers all five polyp types (hyperplastic polyp, sessile serrated polyp, traditional serrated adenoma, tubular adenoma, and tubulovillous/villous adenoma) that are included in the US multi-society task force guidelines for colorectal cancer risk assessment and surveillance, and encompasses the most common occurrences of colorectal polyps. Our evaluation on 239 independent test samples shows our proposed method can identify the types of colorectal polyps in whole-slide images with a high efficacy (accuracy: 93.0%, precision: 89.7%, recall: 88.3%, F1 score: 88.8%). The presented method in this paper can reduce the cognitive burden on pathologists and improve their accuracy and efficiency in histopathological characterization of colorectal polyps, and in subsequent risk assessment and follow-up recommendations

The impact of emotional well-being on long-term recovery and survival in physical illness: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesized studies on emotional well-being as predictor of the prognosis of physical illness, while in addition evaluating the impact of putative moderators, namely constructs of well-being, health-related outcome, year of publication, follow-up time and methodological quality of the included studies. The search in reference lists and electronic databases (Medline and PsycInfo) identified 17 eligible studies examining the impact of general well-being, positive affect and life satisfaction on recovery and survival in physically ill patients. Meta-analytically combining these studies revealed a Likelihood Ratio of 1.14, indicating a small but significant effect. Higher levels of emotional well-being are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. The findings show that emotional well-being predicts long-term prognosis of physical illness. This suggests that enhancement of emotional well-being may improve the prognosis of physical illness, which should be investigated by future research

Synthesis of an alkylmagnesium amide and interception of a ring-opened isomer of the important utility amide 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide (TMP)

Two new magnesium complexes containing the important utility amide 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide (TMP) have been synthesised. Treating the magnesium bis(alkyl) reagent (Me3SiCH2)2Mg with a molar equivalent of TMP(H) in hydrocarbon medium produces the dimeric alkylmagnesium amide complex [(Me3SiCH2)Mg(μ-TMP)]22, which was isolated in high yield. X-ray crystallography revealed that 2 was an unsymmetrical dimer as unusually the two TMP ligands adopt different conformations – one a chair, the other a twisted boat. Solution studies (multinuclear NMR and DOSY NMR spectroscopies) show that 2 undergoes a monomerisation and Schlenk equilibrium in d8-THF. When (Me3SiCH2)2Mg was reacted with two molar equivalents of TMP(H) in hydrocarbon medium [in an effort to prepare Mg(TMP)2] a crystalline sample of a surprising product, a tetranuclear triheteroanionic amide-alkoxide-amidoalkene [(TMP)Mg(μ-TMP){μ-N(H)C(Me)2CH2CH2CH2C(Me) = CH2}Mg(μ-OCH2SiMe3)]23 was obtained. Complex 3 contains two unexpected anions, namely the alkoxide produced via oxygen insertion into a Mg–C bond, and the primary amidoalkene which is produced via ring opening of the TMP anion

Quality of life in patients with chronic alveolar hypoventilation

Measurements of health-related quality of life (HRQL) have not been reported in patients with chronic alveolar hypoventilation (CAH) before starting home mechanical ventilation. The purpose of this study was to investigate quality of life in a population of such patients. Forty-four consecutive patients with CAH due to previous polio, scoliosis, healed pulmonary tuberculosis or neuromuscular disease answered a battery of condition specific and generic (Sickness Impact Profile, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, Mood Adjective Check List) self-report questionnaires. Spirometry, arterial blood gases and overnight oxygen saturation were measured. Patients with untreated CAH had significantly impaired HRQL compared to historical data from a healthy reference population. Sleep-related problems were frequent. Age, underlying disease, and standard bicarbonate correlated significantly with HRQL measures, albeit with modest levels of explained variance (8-37%). Patients with chronic alveolar hypoventilation due to neuromuscular or restrictive chest wall disorders had severely impaired health-related quality of life. Age, the underlying disease and severity of hypoventilation are each related to the health-related quality of life decrements. Health-related quality of life measurements add important information to traditional clinical observations

An Instrument to Measure Teacher Practices to Support Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades

Reforms to support and expand personalized learning increasingly are being introduced in middle schools across the United States. Personalization, as enacted in response to these reforms, encourages teachers to implement many practices that long have been recommended by advocates of middle grades philosophy. To better understand the practices of middle grades teachers working in schools attempting to implement personalized learning, this article presents a survey instrument to measure teacher practices for personalization in the middle grades. The article describes the formulation and initial administrations of the survey to 232 teachers in 2016 and 165 teachers in 2017. Exploratory factor analysis provided evidence for the presence of factors describing practices for personalized assessment, out-of-school learning, whole group learning in a personalized setting, and technology implementation. Confirmatory factor analysis with the follow-up sample provided additional support for this structure. Data from these two separate survey administrations demonstrated high internal consistency and moderate correlation across the groups of practices. Suggestions for future research using the tool are offered. The survey instrument is included as an appendix

The children's social understanding scale: construction and validation of a parent-report measure for assessing individual differences in children's theories of mind

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Children’s theory of mind (ToM) is typically measured with laboratory assessments of performance. Although these measures have generated a wealth of informative data concerning developmental progressions in ToM, they may be less useful as the sole source of information about individual differences in ToM and their relation to other facets of development. In the current research, we aimed to expand the repertoire of methods available for measuring ToM by developing and validating a parent-report ToM measure: the Children’s Social Understanding Scale (CSUS). We present 3 studiesassessing the psychometric properties of the CSUS. Study 1 describes item analysis, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and relation of the scale to children’s performance on laboratory ToM tasks. Study 2 presents cross-validation data for the scale in a different sample of preschool children with a different set of ToM tasks. Study 3 presents further validation data for the scale with a slightly older age group and a more advanced ToM task, while controlling for several other relevant cognitive abilities. The findings indicate that the CSUS is a reliable and valid measure of individual differences in children’s ToM that may be of great value as a complement to standard ToM tasks in many different research contexts